New Black Woman

This is a sad, yet an all-too-realistic theme coming from some countries in Africa. Ghana is the latest country to “throw the book” at some of its GLBTQ citizens. The country’s western region minister issued a call to arrest all gays in the country’s western portion.

The Star Observer had some interesting quotes and background on the story:

“All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society,” he said.

The move by the Minister follows months of campaigning by the Christian Council of Ghana which last week called on Ghanaians not to vote for any politician who believes in the rights of homosexuals. Muslims and Christians in the Western Region have been staging protests ever since a local media report claimed there were around 8,000 homosexuals and lesbians in the district.

The Christian Council of Ghana also encouraged anyone seeking political office to publicly announce his or her’s sexuality in an attempt to clear the air.

At a press conference in Accra on Monday the General Secretary of the Council Dr. Fred Deegbe urged voters to blacklist any presidential candidate who supports the rights of gays and lesbians in any shape or form. He contended the act of homosexuality is sinful and barbaric and must not be countenanced in the country.

“This detestable and abominable act if passed into law in Ghana will bring the wrath of God upon the nation and the consequences will be unbearable,” he said.

“…We call on all Christians to vote against all politicians who promote and support homosexuality,” he urged.

He further stated “We as a Christian community in Ghana totally condemn this as an unnatural and ungodly act and call on all religious bodies and organizations, traditional rulers and all decent loving Ghanaians to join in this campaign.” Quoting religiously from Leviticus 18:22 of the bible the Reverend stated: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. That is detestable,” adding, “these are so clear and need no further interpretation or explanation.”

He said the practice of homosexuality is alien to the Ghanaian culture and called on all to resist the imposition of alien cultures in the name of human rights.

A member of the country’s Parliament also told the GLBTQ community they could be facing imminent lynching for their sexuality. 

The NDC MP for Shai Osu Doku, Hon David Tetteh Assuming, said he is disgusted at the campaigns being led by respected senior citizens seeking respect and tolerance for gay and lesbian rights. In an interview with Citi News’ Parliamentary Correspondent, Richard Sky, Hon. Assuming said homosexuals operating in the country may have to relocate outside Ghana before the growing public outrage against them degenerates into systematic moves to eliminate them one after the other.

“You cannot trace this act to any of the settings in Ghana. So this is foreign and I am I saying that Ghanaians cherish our culture a lot so for anybody to adulterate the cultural setting in Ghana as far as this act is concerned, I have the fear that people could take the law into their hands in future and deal with this people drastically. We have been seeing the situation where people take the law into their hands to lynch armed robbers. They call it mob action. And so since this has been happening and the law cannot take hold of this people, then I believe that the same thing could be directed to them. So I am sending a sign to these people that they will not have it easy in this country. They can leave here and go to other places to practice that. But in this country, I believe that they are treading on dangerous grounds and they could face lynching in future” he noted. The Legislator said issues of human rights cannot justify the practice of homosexuality in Ghana, which he according to him, could incur the wrath of God on a “God-fearing nation” like Ghana.

“Being a God-fearing nation and a God-fearing people, let us not joke with this issue and let us not talk about any issue of human rights. This is uncultured, anti-Ghanaian and if care is not taken, these people will face a very tough time in future” he noted.

I *love* how this politician feigns concern over the safety of GLBTQ citizens in Ghana, but in the same breath justifies the mob action  as something law enforcement has no power to control. He effectively gave the green light to anti-GLBTQ citizens, politicians, activists and organizations to round up and lynch any suspected GLBTQ person.

This type of blatant campaign to effectively round up, jail, torture and kill homosexuals throughout the African content is nothing new, as homosexuality is still considered a taboo subject in a good number of its countries. In Uganda, Malawi and Kenya, a flurry of anti-gay comments and actions are viewed as a rise of a homophobic wave gripping those countries and its citizens. A call to use the death penalty to punish “aggravated homosexuality” in Uganda against gays created a sense of fear among its citizens for their family, friends and loved ones.  (More…)

Don’t you just love when conservatives feign concern over eugenics when it’s supposedly practiced by those on the opposite side of the spectrum?

Not surprisingly, another Fox News host chimed in with her thoughts about a recent recommendation from the Institute of Medicine to offer birth control for free to women. Heather Childers apparently felt the need to jump into a debate between Sandy Rios, vice president of Family-PAC Federal who expressed opposition to the recommendation, and Dr. Cathleen London, who supported the recommendation. In a nutshell, Ross chided London for her support and offered her solution to the problem by telling women to “stop having irresponsible sex” and encouraging them to be more responsible for their behavior.

The network host didn’t waste any time when it came to expressing her feelings. Childers added it’s “not too much to ask for everyone to stop having irresponsible sex.”

Social conservatives, more often than not, tend to believe in simple solutions for complex problems. When it comes to the issue of expensive birth control and unwanted pregnancies, social conservatives have no problem with using oversimplified answers. They propose marriage as the solution to prevent children from living in poverty (which, in an ideal world, would be the perfect solution if both parents worked middle-class jobs and were immune to the Great Recession). They propose abstinence to cut down on the rampant STD infections and pregnancies among teenagers. They believe in anti-gay therapy in “curing” people of their homosexuality.

These two hosts somehow believe irresponsible sex is the cure-all for women not needing birth control. As if irresponsible sex is the only reason why birth control is available.

(More…)

Every six months or so, the research community rolls out studies pertaining to women that often debunk the long held beliefs that women aren’t sexual beings. The latest study to contradict longstanding societal impressions was released last week:

At least according to a recent study by Diane Kholos Wysocki, a professor of sociology and women’s studies at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Cheryl D. Childers, a professor of sociology at Washburn University, women are more likely to send nude photographs or sexually explicit text messages than men. About two-thirds of women surveyed sent such missives compared with roughly half the men (although for reasons to be explained later, these results are not the most scientific).

*Sips coffee* Interesting.

The article broke down the unusual method to conduct this survey:

Dr. Kholos Wysocki’s current study used a rather unusual data set: an online survey of 5,187 adult visitors to the Web site AshleyMadison.com, an “infidelity” service aimed at married men and women, as its basis for analysis. Conducted in 2009, the survey asked 68 questions about users’ Internet use, sexual behaviors and demographics.

Women were also more likely to meet people in real life after meeting them online (83 percent of women compared with 67 percent of men). But they were less likely to be anxious about being caught looking at sexually explicit material and less cautious than men about sweeping up their cybertrails. Dr. Kholos Wysocki was not surprised. “I know young men who are constantly getting naked pictures from women they know on their phones,” she said. “They’re constant!”

Bingo. Perhaps women are more likely to sext because the men in their lives are more interested in seeing their naked bodies than they are interested in seeing a man’s naked body? Who knows…

I love when these “studies” are released. They send the established medical and psychological communities and society into a tizzy because a wrench has been thrown into their their fantasies–and misconceptions–about women and sexuality. This latest study once again turns the perception of women as passive participants in sex and apathetic about their sexuality on its head and reminds society that women are just as complex and interested in sex as men.

So, congratulations to Dr. Diane Kholos Wysocki and Dr. Cheryl Childers. Your study highlights nothing new, exotic and exciting about women and sexuality, but thanks for confirming what women already know: that we like sex, technology and sending naked photos of the bodies we supposedly feel so insecure about.